On 2 April 2009 the Spanish authorities informed the Commission of a State guarantee on an emergency liquidity assistance ("ELA") granted by the Spanish supervisory authority (Bank of Spain) in favor of Caja Castilla-La Mancha ("CCM") on 29 March 2009.

CCM is a Spanish caja de ahorros (savings bank) which was established in 1992 as a result of the merger of Caja Provincial de Ahorros de Albacete, Caja de Ahorros de Cuenca y Ciudad Real, and Caja Provincial de Ahorros de Toledo.

On 31 March 2009, the Bank of Spain provided CCM with a EUR 9 billion ELA. The ELA was guaranteed by the State up to EUR 3 billion.

On 27 April 2009, the managing board of the FGD agreed to provide a EUR 1.3 billion capital injection in the form of preference shares, which allowed CCM to lift its solvency ratio to 11%.

The Spanish authorities submit that that temporary State aid measure is compatible with the internal market on the basis of Article 107(3)(b) TFEU, as it remedies a serious disturbance in the Spanish economy.

The European Commission concluded that

"Given that CCM is an undertaking active in the financial sector, which is open to intense international competition, the Commission considers that any advantage from State resources to CCM would have the potential to affect intra-Union trade and distort competition. Additionally, CCM's banking activities to be transferred to Banco Liberta will be competing on the Spanish retail deposit and mortgage lending markets. In those two markets, some competitors are subsidiaries of foreign banks. The measures are therefore able to affect trade between Member States." (par. 117-118 of the letter from the EC to Spain - Brussels, 29.06.2010 C(2010)4453

The Commission decided to consider the aid measures implemented by Spain in the context of the restructuring of CCM to be compatible with the internal market.

A state measure in the GTA database is assessed solely in terms of the extent to which its implementation affects the extent of discrimination against foreign commercial interests. On this metric, the state aid proposed here is discriminatory.